The Time Bubble

Hello everyone, What a year it’s been. Where to start? Well, I won’t dwell on the virus, lockdowns or any of that, because millions of column inches and tweets have been devoted to that elsewhere. You didn’t come here for that – you want to hear when the next Time Bubble book is coming out! I’m pleased to say that the answer is soon. I have faced a number of challenges this year which have delayed progress. Firstly, I had to home school the children for three months earlier in the year. Secondly, and I won’t go into great detail on this as I am not one to whinge about health issues, I am waiting for eye surgery which I hope to have in the first few months of next year. As things stand, I can still write and work, but I have to go slower than before. This is also the reason you have not seen much in the way of posts from me because I have dedicated all my time to getting the book completed to the standard you both expect and deserve. I am very happy with the end result, provisionally ti...

I watch a lot of TV - probably more than I should since I got Netflix, but hey, it's winter and the sun sets ridiculously early, and I've got 91 episodes of Orange is the new Black to get through, amongst other things. What do you think about teasers in TV programmes - in particular those that give a hint about what's to come? I'm talking about something shocking and unexpected in the pre-credits sequence that's going to happen much later in the show. After the opening credits you get a caption along the lines of "Three Days Earlier" so you know you'll be working up to what you saw before. Personally, I've always liked this, and the literary equivalent is the Prologue. I used to feel that my books started rather slowly so I gave it a try in Class of '92 , my last book, which opened with a dinosaur rampaging through Oxford. I think that got people's attention. For my new book, I've decided to go down the same route and opened the ...

What an awesome night out I had in Bicester last Sunday - significantly better than many of the ones I had when I was actually living there. I think this is one benefit of moving around - you make new friends wherever you go but the ones you made where you were before welcome you back with open arms when you return. The pessimist in me might suggest that people were only so pleased to see me because having been absent for almost two years they might have forgotten what a pain in the arse I am! The optimist in me hopes that's not the case and I am not actually one of those people who gets gets described as "alright in small doses" behind their back. I'm sure there is an element of absence making the heart grow fonder but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I had chosen this particular Sunday to revisit my old stamping ground after receiving an invitation to a Christening. My friends, Anne and Mark, had recently had a new baby, something that in itself had been ...

We're enjoying a well deserved break down in Devon this week and I do feel justified in saying well deserved. It's a phrase I see bandied about rather a lot but everyone in the family has worked really hard this year at work and school to move things forward and we really have earned this trip. I know I haven't posted endless details of what we've been doing all over Facebook but seriously who wants to see all that constantly anyway? I could post endlessly about how well the kids did at parent's evening, how well my latest book's doing and all that gubbins, but honestly, do people really want to see all that stuff? Too much of that gets you unfollowed faster than you can #hashtag your latest check in of where you're having your dinner - yes we get it - you're eating out tonight whilst the rest of us are at home. Good for you. This is why I rarely post to Facebook at all now, let's be honest it's all getting a bit old hat. I'd far rather c...

Since my last post, Ross and I have been working away getting the Time Bubble script to the point where we are now confident we can bring the book to life. One of the most common questions I've been asked by fans of the book since I announced our plans is "You're not going to ruin it by changing everything are you?" The short answer to that is - no. Obviously we have to make a few tweaks to take into account that a book and a film are two very different mediums. These are for the most part very minor details that you'll barely even notice. Other than that this will be a pretty faithful adaption of the book you know and love. You're read the book... ...now be part of the movie! Most of the changes are largely cosmetic and don't impact on the plot at all. For example, I've made the teens eighteen rather than seventeen - primarily because it gives us the scope to cast some older actors. It should also avoid any criticism of the fact that these te...

Apologies for the lack of recent posts but it has been an incredibly busy, yet rewarding few months on the writing front. Firstly, I finished and published Class of '92 on the 30th December. This has been an incredibly successful launch, with several hundred copies sold already and a massive boost to the rest of the range as a result. This has meant that January has been my most successful month to date. To be at a point where I have more income coming in each month than I had in my last full time job feels pretty special. I'm so glad I didn't listen to those early doubters with their "don't give up the day job" advice! It hasn't all been wine and roses and I have to say that there were times when I was writing Class of '92 when I had my doubts (we creative types all have them). But I knuckled down to it and burned the midnight oil, or more accurately the midnight Merlot on more occasions than I can remember as I was determined to get it right. The...

The annual Ayres family holiday is in full swing and this year we are up in the North West - Hesketh Bank, near Preston, to be precise. That might not sound like the most glamorous of holiday destinations but there is method in my madness. Whilst I may love Cornwall and Tenby and all those other tried and tested places, they don't expand my horizons and it's a desire of mine to see as much of these islands we call home as I can. This is quite a challenge. Britain looks pretty titchy on the world map, but there's so much of it! I'd like to say I saw a lot of it when I was working for Nielsen and cruising round the country in the company car, which sounds glamorous, but really it isn't. I could tell you I've been to Thetford, Faversham, Blandford and hundreds of other places, but the truth is, in many cases I saw nothing much of these places at all. In most cases it amounted to driving to some nondescript office building on the local industrial estate, spendin...